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Two Decades of Negative Educational Selectivity of Mexican Migrants to the United States

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  • Michael S. Rendall

    (University of Maryland)

  • Susan W. Parker

    (Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas)

Abstract

Immigration is commonly considered to be selective of more able individuals. Studies comparing the educational attainment of Mexican immigrants in the United States to that of the Mexican resident population support this characterization. Upward educational attainment biases in both coverage and measurement, however, may be substantial in U.S. data sources. Moreover, differences in educational attainment by place size are very large within Mexico, and U.S. data sources provide no information on immigrants’ places of origin within Mexico. To address these problems, we use multiple sources of nationally-representative Mexican survey data to re-evaluate the educational selectivity of labor-force-age Mexican migrants to the United States over the 1990s and 2000s. We document disproportionately rural and small-urban-area origins of Mexican migrants and a steep positive gradient of educational attainment by place size. We show that together these conditions induced strongly negative educational selection of Mexican migrants throughout the 1990s and 2000s. We interpret this finding as consistent with low returns to the education of unauthorized migrants and few opportunities for authorized migration.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael S. Rendall & Susan W. Parker, 2013. "Two Decades of Negative Educational Selectivity of Mexican Migrants to the United States," RF Berlin - CReAM Discussion Paper Series 1328, Rockwool Foundation Berlin (RF Berlin) - Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM).
  • Handle: RePEc:crm:wpaper:1328
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    Cited by:

    1. Mónica L. Caudillo, 2019. "Advanced School Progression Relative to Age and Early Family Formation in Mexico," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(3), pages 863-890, June.
    2. Alexander Patt & Jens Ruhose & Simon Wiederhold & Miguel Flores, 2021. "International Emigrant Selection on Occupational Skills," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 19(2), pages 1249-1298.
    3. Aude Bernard & Martin Bell, 2018. "Educational selectivity of internal migrants: A global assessment," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 39(29), pages 835-854.
    4. Erin R. Hamilton & Jo Mhairi Hale, 2016. "Changes in the Transnational Family Structures of Mexican Farm Workers in the Era of Border Militarization," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(5), pages 1429-1451, October.
    5. Andrés Villarreal, 2016. "The Education-Occupation Mismatch of International and Internal Migrants in Mexico, 2005–2012," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(3), pages 865-883, June.
    6. Erin R. Hamilton, 2015. "Gendered disparities in Mexico-U.S. migration by class, ethnicity, and geography," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 32(17), pages 533-542.
    7. Joshua Wassink, 2018. "Uninsured migrants: Health insurance coverage and access to care among Mexican return migrants," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 38(17), pages 401-428.
    8. Andrés F. Castro Torres, 2020. "Family formation trajectories and migration status in the United States, 1970-2010," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2020-008, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    9. Andrés F. Castro Torres & Emilio Parrado, 2022. "Nativity differentials in first births in the United States: Patterns by race and ethnicity," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 46(2), pages 37-64.
    10. Erin R. Hamilton & Po‐Chun Huang, 2020. "Contextualizing Mexican Migrant Education Selectivity," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 46(3), pages 603-616, September.
    11. Hiram Beltrán-Sánchez & Alberto Palloni & Fernando Riosmena & Rebeca Wong, 2016. "SES Gradients Among Mexicans in the United States and in Mexico: A New Twist to the Hispanic Paradox?," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 53(5), pages 1555-1581, October.
    12. Wassink, Joshua, 2020. "International migration experience and entrepreneurship: Evidence from Mexico," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    13. Alexandre Padilla & Nicolás Cachanosky, 2023. "Immigration and economic freedom of the US states: Does the institutional quality of immigrants' origin countries matter?," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 41(3), pages 489-512, July.

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